Bet ya didn’t know about that one didja? 😉 From the moment you see the positive pregnancy test your life begins to move in 12 week chunks. The first 12 you just want to survive the morning sickies and pray to not miscarry. The second 12 you start to feel good, not too huge, extra energy. The fun part of pregnancy. The third you’re just ready for it to be over! But the fourth is the one I’m in now. I kinda skipped out on a big chunk of the third trimester, but we’re all caught up now and I’m home with my 7 week old “newborns.” 😉 I consider it the fourth trimester because life is not exactly back to “normal” after the conclusion of the third trimester. It is in fact in a HUGE upheaval. From sleep deprivation, sibling rivalry, and baby blues, the fourth 12 weeks is a major adjustment time. I don’t consider our stint in the hospital as part of this time, so we are only a week(ish) into this fourth trimester, and it’s a challenge, times 2… or 5. 😉 My biggest goal during this time is to get the babies on a good sleep routine. If no one is getting any sleep it super-duper compounds any other problems and issues that may arise through the day. Last week (our first home) I was just kind of coasting, and getting up 2x a night. The thing is feeding a baby 2x’s a night isn’t THAT big of a deal, but feeding 2 babies is a whole different story. It takes me a good hour to get through the whole ordeal with both of them, and inevitably someone will not want to go right back to sleep like they should and there ya go. I’ve used “The Baby Whisperer” EASY routine on all my kids but Qade. He was a champ of a sleeper/eater all on his own, so I wasn’t driven to find alternate solutions. I really like this method however, and hope that it works well with the twins. Today was the first day that I’ve seriously implemented it. They have to eat every 3 hours even if they aren’t done sleeping. 🙂 The point is it’s training them how to sleep, and especially how to get themselves to sleep. Also to feed them enough during the day that they are able to sleep longer at night. So far they’ve been doing...
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I can’t get over the fact that we are actually home!! Thursday night was a pretty stressful time for me. I just “knew” that something was going to happen to delay Gabby’s discharge. So much for being a “half full” kind of person, huh? Ha ha! 🙂 Anyway, I got to the hospital on Friday morning and had butterflies in my tummy! I couldn’t find our nurse right off, so I just sat there and waited for a bit. I looked at the monitor and saw the word “Brady” on the alarm section. The time on it would have corresponded to her breakfast time. However, I was hoping for the best because this happened on Wednesday as well, and they didn’t count it. They said it was just a ‘quick’ on that she had with her vitamins. (That stuff smell like they taste horrible!) Anyway, the nurse got back from her break and before I could even ask about the Brady, she said, “Daneen said she is definitely going home today!” Wow! Probably they couldn’t stand the thought of dealing with me any more than I could stand to stay there longer. 😉 But I brought thank you notes for our provider with a S’bucks card in it and a big bowl of assorted chocolates for all our “sweet” nurses. They all seem very appreciative that I would thank them or show MY appreciation at all. I’m convinced that nurses and medical providers are some of the most unappreciated people. So I hope that I helped them feel good on one day at least. I know I was stressed during parts of this process, but I really tried to keep from “venting” that on the staff that was caring for our girls. Even with the whole Brady count and how ridiculous it seemed, I still realized that they are just part of the system and there is little that they can do about it. Anyway, our discharge paperwork was done in what I thought was record time! My dad came up to help me lug all the “stuff” and the two car seats out. I fed the gals hoping to make it home before having to stop. Believe me, I wanted out of there so fast that you’d never find my tracks! We didn’t quite make it all the way home. I had to stop in Gallup to feed Gabby. Seven weeks away hasn’t improved that town in my...
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Today was a very low day for me. Rather than vent my spleen however, I’ll just stick to the facts and then get straight to the pictures. 🙂 Gabby had another “significant” Brady this morning bringing her count back to 0. 🙁 While I had a “feeling” that this would happen, it still was not the news I wanted to hear today. So there were a few tears, and I got some hugs from my Dad and the Nurse Practitioner. But best case scenario is that we’d get out Tuesday, which would be exactly 6 weeks. (I’m not holding my breath) So Gabby has been using a different bottle the past couple of days and we were all hopeful that it would help her with the Brady issue since it reduces the amount of air that she’s swallowing. She seems to do better with it. At least the times that I have feed her it looks like her “pacing” is better with it and she doesn’t sound like she’s gulping as much air. Unfortunately she is still having reflux. Which in and of itself is just something babies have. But her reflux tends to overwhelm her some times and bring on a Brady. At least that’s what happened this morning. So the NP would like to do a ‘swallow study’ with Gabby and find out what is happening in her pipes when she swallows and also if they can “catch” the reflux to see how high it’s going and if it’s the culprit for her kind of shutting down for a little bit. We’ll see. Meanwhile they will start Gabby on some baby Pepcid to hopefully help with the reflux. So… just pray. I really want to go home!...
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So, I’m actually going to spare you my typical long-winded wordy posts today… mostly because I’m tired and the little grunter is sleeping at the moment and I should take advantage of that. 😉 But also because I wanted to post some photos and they are worth like 1,000 words or something, right? 😉...
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Yesterday when I put the girls together they were bright eyed and bushy tailed! My idea was that they’d calm each other down and go to sleep, but neither of them seemed inclined to take a nap! So instead they had some chat time, and even “talked” with Daddy. 🙂 Or at least listened… that’s something. 😉 Daddy talking… … girls listening. Plotting to take over the world!! Or at least bust out of the hospital. Though that’s easier said than done as Claire had 2 visits from security yesterday because her little ankle band kept setting off the alarm. Apparently they have to be super-duper-looks-quite-uncomfy tight in order to work properly. Her kind nurse loosened it in the morning because it looked SO tight, but they had to tighten it back up later since it kept going off. Oh well… we’ll get out...
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